Diana Crewe imagines romance and adventure in the novel she’s writing, a life completely different from the life she lives in the Regency era of England. Then she wakes up inside her manuscript alongside her best friend, Nash Sinclair, and all is not as it seems. Diana must reevaluate all her preconceptions of her own created world, confronting the differences between the appearance of goodness and actual goodness, and the hidden beauty behind surface scars. J. J. Fischer’s Regency and Regicide uses the expected tropes of a historical fantasy to explore truth and goodness as well as beauty. Tight pacing and third-person perspectives create a delightful story exploring the borders between fiction and reality.

Best for: Young adult and older fans of historical romantic fantasy, portal fantasies.

Discern: Lightly described violence in medieval combat, some chaste kisses, appearances by nightmare shadow creatures.